1853
Year 1853 (MDCCCLIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). Events of 1853 January - June *January 8 - Taiping Rebellion: Zeng Guofan is ordered to assist the governor of Hunan in organising a militia force to search for local bandits. *January 12 - Taiping Rebellion: Taiping army occupies Wuchang. * January 19 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premieres in performance at Teatro Apollo in Rome. *February 10 - Taiping Rebellion: Taiping forces abandon Hanyang, Hankou and Wuchang for march of Nanjing. *February 12 - Puerto Montt is founded in the Reloncaví Sound, Chile. *February 22 - Washington University is founded as Eliot Seminary *March 4 - Inauguration of US president Franklin Pierce *March 20 - Taiping Rebellion: Rebel army of around 750,000 seizes Nanjing, killing 30,000 Imperial troops. *May 13 - Taiping Rebellion: Taiping Northern Expeditionary Force marches out of the Heavenly Capital. *May 20 - Taiping Rebellion: Taiping Western Expeditionary Force marches out of the Heavenly Capital. *May 23 - The first plat for Seattle is laid out. *June 27 - Taiping Rebellion: Northern Expeditionary Force crosses the Yellow River. July - December *July 8 - U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry arrives in Edo Bay with a request for a trade treaty *July 25 Outlaw and bandit Joaquin Murietta is killed. *August 12 – New Zealand acquires self-government *August 23 - 1st true International Meteorological Organization Brussels, Belgium *August 24 - Potato chips first prepared. *September 19 - Hudson Taylor first left for China. was the last major naval battle involving sailing warships.]] *October 4/October 5 - Crimean War: The Ottoman Empire declares war on Russia. *October 28 - Crimean War: Ottoman army crosses the Danube into Vidin / Kalafat in Wallachia. *October 30 - Taiping Rebellion: Taiping Northern Expeditionary Force comes within three miles of Tianjin. *November 3 - Troops of William Walker capture La Paz in Baja California and declare (short-lived) Republic of Lower California *November 15 - Maria II of Portugal is succeeded by her son Pedro *November 30 - Crimean War: Battle of Sinop - The Russian fleet destroys the Turkish fleet. *December 6 - Taiping Rebellion: French minister de Bourboulon arrives at the Heavenly Capital aboard the Cassini. *December 30 - Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest Undated *Royal Norwegian Navy Museum founded. *Yellow fever kills 7,790 in New Orleans *Alexander Wood invents the hypodermic syringe *Donald McKay builds the Great Republic, the world's biggest sailing ship, which at 4,500 tons was too large to be successful *Isambard Kingdom Brunel began work on the Great Eastern passenger steamer *Independent Santa Cruz Maya of Eastern Yucatan recognized as an independent nation by British Empire *Iesada succeeds Ieoshi as Japanese Shogun *Beginning of the Late Tokugawa shogunate, the last part of the Edo period in Japan. *Stephen Foster writes "My Old Kentucky Home." *The University of Florida establilshed *Swiss watch company Tissot founded. Ongoing events * Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864) Births * January 28 - José Martí, Cuban revolutionary (d. 1895) * February 6 - Ignacij Klemenčič, Slovenian physicist (d. 1901) * March 14 - Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter (d. 1918) * March 30 - Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (d. 1890) * May 28 - Carl Larsson, Swedish painter (d. 1919) * June 3 - William Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (d. 1942) * June 12 - Chester Adgate Congdon, Minnesota mining magnate (d. 1916) * July 5 - Cecil Rhodes, English businessman (d. 1902) * July 18 - Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928) * September 2 - Wilhelm Ostwald, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1932) * September 16 - Albrecht Kossel, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1927) * September 20 - Chulalongkorn, Rama V, king of Thailand (d. 1910) * September 21 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1926) : See also 1853 births. Deaths * January 16 - Matteo Carcassi, Italian composer (b. 1792) * March 17 - Christian Doppler, Austrian mathematician (b. 1803) * April 18 - William R. King, Vice President of the United States (b.1786) * April 28 - Ludwig Tieck, German writer (b. 1773) * June 8 - Richard William Howard Vyse (b. 1784) * July 27 - Tokugawa Ieyoshi, Japanese shogun (b.1793) * August 19 - George Cockburn, British Naval commander (b.1772) * August 23 - Alexander Calder, first mayor of Beaumont (b. 1806) * September 3 - Augustin Saint-Hilaire, French botanist and traveller (b.1799) * November 15 - Maria II of Portugal (b. 1819) : See also 1853 deaths.